At Novel Patient, Lauren writes about what happens when her illness goes from being invisible to obvious, and how that does or doesn't impact who and how much she talks about her illnesses in Full Disclosure.

Thanks to everyone who contributed this round!I hope you will get as much out of the posts from this edition as I have. Many of them strike a very personal note for me, and this topic is one that I find myself thinking about often, especially now that I am in a new city meeting lots of new people.

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This post is timely as just two days ago an unexpected person contacted me (on facebook) because of posts I had written at MyRACentral. Because of using my real name, a cousin (who I haven't seen in maybe 20 years) is back in touch.

The reason isn't so exciting - she was just diagnosed with RA - but it's nice that I can support her at this stage of her journey. And together we can discuss our mothers and aunts who live with autoimmune diseases.

If I had chosen not to use my real name, she would have just seen a very familiar face and wondered why that adult looked like someone she should know.

This is the most personal the outreach of blogging has become. Family reunited over RA and information online.

Thanks so much for this - I have RA as well, and while I have put a lot of thought into when to disclose the fact to employers, I've been really casual about it with friends/potential dating partners. The links you posted helped me see why it's probably something to put more thought into!

(aside note: I know you wrote about when to disclose it to a date - in 100% of my cases, I actually found that the dating partner saw it as a positive - like, "Wow, you are tough to have gone through that." So, for many, it will be seen as a strength, not a weakness, paradoxically!)